SHOCKERS FORWARD CHOSE WHEAT FIELDS OVER LOCAL BEACHES

LOS ANGELES 
Hurricane Irene spun up the Eastern Seaboard in the summer of 2011 and left $15.6 billion worth of damage in its wake. It was downgraded to a tropical storm when it slammed into New York on Aug. 27, but it was still ferocious enough to shut down the Manhattan transportation system and close dozens of airports.

It also might have got the Wichita State men’s basketball team a junior college recruit named Cleanthony Early.

Early, a 6-foot-8 junior forward from Sullivan Community College in Middletown, N.Y., had narrowed his suitors to five schools, and he was really choosing between two: Wichita State and San Diego State. His visit to SDSU, he openly admits, went better than he possibly imagined.

“It was my best visit — ever — you know what I’m saying?” Early says. “There was everything. San Diego State, the girls, the beach. We’re on campus and there’s this big pool. I’m like, ‘Oh man, homework or the pool?’ Maybe I can do homework at the pool.”

He chose Wichita, Kan., which, he also admits, he had to look on a map to find and initially thought had two t’s and had no clue what a wheat shocker is. Which, when the ninth-seeded Shockers left for Los Angeles earlier this week, had temperatures in the 20s and snow on the ground.

Early smiles. He’s the leading scorer on the only mid-major team left in the NCAA Tournament. Beat No. 2 Ohio State today at Staples Center, and the Shockers become the first Missouri Valley Conference representative in the Final Four since Larry Bird and Indiana State in 1979.

“I felt like Wichita was the perfect spot,” Early says.

Assist, Irene.

The NCAA mandates that official recruiting visits last no longer than 48 hours, and Early was scheduled to fly back to New York after two days in the wheat fields. Except he couldn’t.

“I got to stay out there for like a week,” Early says. “It was so crazy and awkward. But the fact that it happened, I was like, ‘This is another sign.’ … It just seemed like the stars were aligning.”

Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall picks up the story here:

“We literally could not get him back. That is the first time in my 15 years I’ve had to deal with that. We had to call the NCAA and say, ‘What do we do?’ They said, ‘Well, you have to apply for a waiver to get an extension.’

“So he got to know our players very, very well, liked them, liked our staff. We ran out of things to show him. I mean, our visit was over. But we just tried to keep him busy. It ended up working to our favor.”

It did because Early realized two things: There’s not a whole lot to do in Wichita, and the Shockers roster is full of underappreciated overachievers just like him.

Most guys would choose the beach.

“Exactly,” Early says. “When you’re not trying to be like most guys, you gotta make some decisions that are tough. I know the type of kid I am. In Wichita, there isn’t much to do. I felt it was more of a place where I could stay focused.”